A Bay Area man is under observation today (Friday, December 28) after he allegedly barricaded himself inside a Castro area Chevron station Thursday, December 27.

According to Officer Carlos Manfredi, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department, the incident started at about 10:39 a.m. Thursday.

The suspect was “acting erratically” and “in a threatening manner,” Manfredi said, prompting a female clerk to lock the door of the gas station, which is near Castro and Market streets. An SFPD summary lists the man’s age as 21 and the clerk’s age as 29, but Manfredi said the suspect is in his 30s.

Manfredi said the man threw his weight into the glass door, which shattered, and the clerk locked herself in the bathroom. When officers arrived, the man locked himself in the shop’s office, he said.

“At some point, the suspect held a small knife up to his wrist,” Manfredi said.

The man opened the door to the office around 12 p.m. Police took him into custody and placed him in mental health detention, he said.

“He was placed under evaluation because he was a danger to himself,” Manfredi said.

He said the man is from Livermore, California, but he couldn’t release more information because of medical privacy laws. State Welfare and Institutes code 5150, under which the man was taken into custody, states he may be held for three days. Manfredi indicated he hasn’t been arrested.

No one at the gas station answered the phone around the time of the incident Thursday or Friday afternoon.